Hebrew

The Chair of Hebrew in Edinburgh University's Faculty of Divinity was created in 1642. Its first occupant Julius Conradus Otto was the first academic from mainland Europe to be elected to an Edinburgh chair and is the earliest-known person of Jewish origin to have lived in Scotland.

Foundation of the Chair

The Chair of Hebrew and Oriental Languages was the second Professorship founded in Edinburgh University after the Chair of Divinity in 1620. Hebrew had hitherto been taught in a somewhat perfunctory fashion. Under the then prevalent Regenting System, students were given a basic grounding in Hebrew Grammar during their third year of studies. In 1628 the obligation to read Divinity students a weekly lesson in the Hebrew language was listed as one of the duties of the Professor of Divinity. In 1642, however, Alexander Henderson (c1583–1646), the Rector of Edinburgh University, was the prime mover in a nationwide campaign to raise academic standards through an influx of talent from abroad. He played a key role in instigating a resolution of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland calling on Scottish universities to seek abroad for able professors. In the same year, Henderson persuaded the Town Council of Edinburgh to introduce the specialized teaching of Hebrew into the University, and to employ a foreign scholar. The Council’s choice fell upon Julius Conradus Otto, described as ‘a learned Jew’.

Julius Conradus Otto

Sources vary considerably concerning Otto’s biographical details. Most historians identify him with the scholar Naphtali Margolioth, born in Vienna in 1562. Margolioth converted to Christianity in 1603, changed his name to Julius Conradus Otto, and became Professor of Hebrew at Altdorf, Germany. He later reverted to Judaism. George F. Black argues, however, that the holder of the Edinburgh Chair was a son of Margolioth, who assumed the same Christian name as his father.

In the decades following Otto's death, Hebrew became an increasingly neglected subject. Few theology students attended Hebrew classes, as there was no requirement to do so in order to be licensed as a Church of Scotland minister. Nor did the Professor demand fees from those who did. As a result the post gradually came to be seen as little more than a sinecure. The Chair also suffered more than any other during the religious and dynastic upheavals of the late 17th century, with two professors being dismissed on account of their views.

Otto was succeeded in the Chair in 1656 by Alexander Dickson (b. 1628), son of David Dickson, the Professor of Divinity. Dickson was removed from the post in 1679, after refusing to sign the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance which demanded that he recognize Episcopalianism as the true form of church government. He was replaced by Alexander Amedeus, a Florentine Jew, of whom little is known and who had demitted the post by 1681. His successor, Alexander Douglas (d. 1692) was expelled from the University by a Committee of Visitation in 1690, when, along with the Principal, the Professor of Divinity, and two regents, he refused to take the Oath of Allegiance to the newly crowned King William III. (See Purge of Episcopalian and Jacobite Staff, 1690.)

The Chair enjoyed little more fortune over the next decade. After lying dormant for two years, it was briefly occupied by Patrick Sinclair who died in 1694. He was succeeded by Alexander Rule, son of Principal Gilbert Rule (c1629-1701), who resigned on account of 'insanity' in 1701. At this point, however, under the reforming Principal William Carstares (1649-1715), efforts were made to revitalize the teaching of Hebrew. In 1702, it was stipulated that all Philosophy students should study Hebrew, and the requirement for prospective church ministers to have studied Hebrew was more strictly enforced.

Professors of Hebrew

• 1642 - Julius Conradus Otto
• 1656 - Alexander Dickson (b. 1628)
• 1679 - Alexander Amedeus
• 1682 - Alexander Douglas (d. 1692)
• 1692 - Patrick Sinclair (d. 1694)
• 1694 - Alexander Rule (d. c. 1745)

Sources

• George F. Black, 'The Beginnings of the Study of Hebrew in Scotland', in Studies in Jewish Bibliography and Related Subjects: In Memory of A. S. Freidus, ed. Louis Ginzburg (New York: Alexander Kohut Memorial Fund, 1929), pp. 463-78.
• Thomas Craufurd, History of the University of Edinburgh, from 1580 to 1646: To Which is Prefixed the Charter Granted to the College by James VI of Scotland, in 1582 (Edinburgh: Printed by A. Neill & Co., 1808)
• Sir Alexander Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh during its First Three Hundred Years, 2 vols (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1884)
• Esther Mijers, 'The Netherlands, William Carstares, and the Reform of Edinburgh University, 1690-1715', History of Universities, 25.2 (2011), 111-42.